Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

New Action: No Action on Social Justice, But Lots of Talk

New Action claims that "action" is talking about something. They were
the "first to call" and sometimes they "repeatedly call" for
action, as if "calling" is action. Hey, I call for world peace. I'll wait a few minutes to check if it worked. Maybe I should try doing it repeatedly.-- Ed Notes

I recall members of New
Action enthusiastically supporting the creation of the UFT Charter
School. I was alone in my negative vote. I oppose charter schools and so
does MORE because they take precious public resources away from the
public schools. -- James Eterno, ICE blog

I can't tell you how much glee the MOREs are having with these New Action posts: The crew that actually MADE a movie defending public education and teacher unions. Or the crew that has not only "repeatedly called" for people to go to closing school and charter co-locos and PEP meetings, but ACTUALLY went and spoke and leafleted.

If you haven't read it yet see my post from yesterday with links to wonderful NYC Educator posts.

The funniest is their claims on mayoral control when ICE took on that issue in the process of formation in 2003 because no other caucus even mentioned it. And I will point out that Ed Notes went after Randi for supporting it as far back as pre-ICE 2001, as James Eterno points out on the ICE blog today.

I was sitting behind James when Randi raised it at a May or June 2001 meeting and I watched NA dictator Mike Shulman run around to the NA Ex Bd members telling them not to oppose it (according to one NA EB member at the time) because Randi would be mad at them. I was yelling in the ear of James and NA's Bob Dehler, who turned around and told me how good mayoral control would be.

Here is James today on the ICE blog on mayoral control:

New Action states that they have opposed mayoral control from the start.
I remember it a little differently. While on the UFT Executive Board, I
seem to recall the subject of mayoral control first came up around
2001. The Unity majority brought forward a school governance
recommendation that supported giving the mayor the majority control over
the Board of Education.
Norm Scott showed up at the Executive Board and schooled me quickly on
how it would be a disaster. Chicago was already ahead of New York on
mayoral dictatorship; there were already horrible consequences for
teachers and students. I spoke up and voted against supporting mayoral
control that night but I don't remember some of the other NAC members of
the Executive Board voting with me. NAC had no position on the subject
at the time. {James doesn't remember but NA member Bob Dehler turned to me at that point and said mayoral control is a good idea.--Norm}

I also recall members of New
Action enthusiastically supporting the creation of the UFT Charter
School. I was alone in my negative vote. I oppose charter schools and so
does MORE because they take precious public resources away from the
public schools.

I'm glad James brought up the enthusiastic support New Action gave to the UFT charter co-location of 2 public schools -- and note that issue is absent from their literature, probably because Mulgrew told them that was a no-no. ICE took a strong and immediate stand against the UFT Charter with Michael Fiorillo leading the way at the DA.

James and MORE and ICE members Lisa North, who left New Action to form ICE in 2003 after their dirty deal with Unity, and Gloria Brandman take apart the New Action claims at the ICE blog. James starts it off.

AN INSIDE LOOK AT NEW ACTION CLAIMSNew Action is supporting Michael Mulgrew for President in the UFT
election. Ballots will be mailed today so now it is up to members to
decide who will lead our union. The only caucus running an opposing
presidential candidate is the Movement for Rank and File Educators
(MORE). MORE is running Julie Cavanagh for UFT President as most
readers of this blog already know. This blog endorses Cavanagh/MORE.
Unity and New action are the two longest running caucuses (political
parties) in the UFT. Unity has run the UFT for five decades. New
Action opposed Unity for years. I was a member of New Action from 1995
to 2003. I was elected to the UFT Executive Board three times while in
NAC.

In those days they were a genuine opposition group that actually
ran a candidate for UFT President.

When I was a new Chapter Leader in 1996, NAC co-chair Michael Shulman
spent a great deal of time teaching me about the job and was a valuable
resource as was NAC's Ellen Fox. Therefore, it was very painful to
leave NAC in 2003 after they decided not to oppose Unity's Randi
Weingarten for UFT President, but it was necessary. Camille Eterno,
Ellen Fox, Lisa North, Chris Ash and others have not looked back since
we defected although I do miss my New Action friends.

New Action in its current form basically exists to confuse members into
thinking they are still the main opposition group within the UFT. They
put out literature that looks critical of the leadership but they do not
run against President Mulgrew; instead they endorse him. In exchange
they are given ten candidates for the UFT Executive Board that the
majority Unity Caucus is cross endorsing so they are pretty much assured
of victory. NAC maintains this arrangement gives them a voice inside
the UFT much like the Unity leaders say they have a voice at the table
with Bill Gates and others. What good does that do us?

NYC Educator correctly
points out that supporting the other party's candidate for president
would be akin to the Democrats in 2004 saying they are the main
opposition party and then supporting Republican George W Bush for
president. You wouldn't think that is much of an opposition, would you?

NAC is running for these seats and others based on their record.
However, a look at that record shows that some of what New Action is
taking credit for is a little far fetched.

Currently, New Action is making many claims in their literature where
they take credit for their accomplishments within the UFT. Former NAC
member (now running with MORE) Lisa North comments on what they do.

I'll interrupt James for a second. Lisa and Gloria have worked with the UFT social justice committee and pushed for many of the issues NA is trying to take credit for. I always told them not to waste their time there because NA would take credit for all the work they did. And so it has come to pass. But they are so socially conscious that won't stop them.

On the disappearing black and Latino educator, every activist in the city knows that ICE founding member and current MORE member Sean Ahern has been the leading voice on this issue since the issue first emerged. As a matter of fact I'm not sure the issue would have emerged if not for the work of Sean.

Defense of the Puerto Rican teachers
Give me a break on this. Angel Gonzalez who is as close as anyone can be to Rafael Feliciano who led the PR teachers, came to ICE, not NA for help in putting the issue before the DA (that's how I met him). And we supported him on the blog and at the DA. See if NA was writing about this issue in 2007 and 2008. In fact, Ed Notes was writing about the Puerto Rico teacher story and their withdrawal from the AFT all along. (Angel then joined ICE and he and I and a few others founded what became GEM in Jan. 2009.)

Stop and frisk
ICE/MORE's Jeff Kaufman, a former cop and lawyer, has been an activist in opposing Stop and Frisk, along with James Eterno's brother John, also a former policeman. They speak all over the state on this issue. MORE took an early stand on this issue and MORE people have worked with and supported the amazing work Teachers Unite does on so many related issues.

On the anti-war issue
Gloria and Lisa were the key people in keeping this flame alive and ran the UFTers to Oppose the War listserve since its founding.

Well, I'll let James, Lisa and Gloria continue (and my message to Gloria is: these guys are the enemies of union reform and prove it every day.)

"While it's true that
NAC proposes some resolutions on important issues at Executive Board
meetings, they do little or NO organizing! It was MORE people who held
meetings, sent emails, had rallies, circulated petitions, passed out
fliers, contacted other community groups for support, etc. New Action is
just like UNITY....pass a resolution and DO NO ACTION to organize to
make a real change happen.

Gloria Brandman sits on the UFT Social Justice Committee along with Lisa North. Here is her critique (in italics) of New Action:

New Actions says they are: The only caucus to repeatedly call for action on the disappearing Black and Latino educators-

Reality:
This issue was originally brought to the Social and Economic Justice
Committee (which is co chaired by a NAC and a UNITY person) by MORE's
Sean Ahearn with support from Lisa and Gloria, Sean and other MORE
people. Teachers Unite, and CPE worked on this issue even before it was
brought to the UFT.

New Action says they initiated a resolution in Support of Puerto Rican Teachers Federation Leadership-

Reality:
Not sure if this is true but whenever Rafael Feliciano who was the
President of the PRTF came to NYC, he spoke at many events in NYC, none
of them organized by anyone in NAC. It was GEM (Grassroots Education
Movement) people who took leadership in supporting the PR Teachers and
members of GEM who organized speaking engagements, forums and fundraising events for President Feliciano.

{IT IS TRUE GLORIA}

New Action says they called on UFT to support the April 9, 2011 anti-war demonstration.

The Whole Story:
This is positive but resolutions without actions do little to make
change. It was members of ICE who are now MORE members that formed
UFTers to Stop the War. UFTers to Stop the War brought anti-war
resolutions to the DA as well as worked to make sure all high schools
had information about opting out of military recruitment. NAC supported
some of this work, but they did not do the organizing to bring any of it
about. It was MORE people! And for the anti-war demonstration in
Washington, DC on Jan 27, 2007 it was MORE members who requested and got
the UFT to provide two buses, and Lisa and Gloria were the bus captains
on the buses. One or two NACs may have attended as well.

New Action says they achieved:

Bipartisan Social and Economic Justice Committee passes rent control resolutionBipartisan
Social and Economic Justice Committee gets resolution passed on
Reducing the Environmental Footprint. Calls for an end to plastic
bottles at UFT and for recycling bins.

Reality: Not Bipartisan- There were people from three different caucuses at these meetings.

(Bipartisan
=including members from two parties or factions) I will say that
getting rid of the plastic bottles at the DA is probably the most
concrete and successful action that has come about due to this
committee!

New Action says they exposed SESIS as a “nightmare.” Called for help for our members.

Exactly how did they expose this?Most of them have never even seen SESIS as they are retired.

New Action says they won bipartisan support in solidarity with Chicago teachers

The
Whole Story: It was MORE that brought teachers from Chicago here, wrote
and circulated petitions, organized and participated in meetings,
rallies and a march that started in Union Square.

New Action asks the UFT to join NAACP suit on selective school entrance examsMORE actually proposed a resolution at the DA which was combined with the Executive Board's resolution and approvedNew Action called for support for Seattle teachers who refused to administer standardized tests.The
Whole story: It was a MORE member who brought a resolution to DA. it
was combined with the Executive Board's resolution and approved

Back to James.

One
final point: New Action met with some people from MORE last fall and
NAC says there was an agreement that MORE would not attack them. Kit
Wainer from MORE was at that meeting and says no such agreement was ever
made. I know Kit and I will stand up 100% for his integrity. I will
be diplomatic and say that apparently there was a misunderstanding.

I am not so kind. They are lying skunks, and I hate to insult skunks.

Now here is the New Action attack on MORE's claim to be the social justice caucus of the UFT.

The Social Justice Caucus? Action vs Words

Published March 25, 2013

MORE Coalition- The Social Justice Caucus?

The MORE group has highlighted their commitment to fight for social
justice in recent election material. They call themselves the social
justice caucus.

On the other hand it is noteworthy that New Action/UFT has been in
the forefront of the struggle for a non-racist, just society. While
focusing on all the issues affecting educators in the schools, from the
attack on veteran teachers, the attack on probationary teachers, the
insanity of SESIS, abusive administrators, the fixation on standardized
tests, and blaming educators for all the problems of the education
system–New Action has taken action on ALL of the following–

The first to call for disaster relief for Haiti
The first to call for justice for Trayvon Martin
The first to call for an end to Stop and Frisk
The first to call for the defeat of Mike Bloomberg and support for Bill Thompson
The first to call for the defense of the fired leadership of the Puerto Rican teachers
The only caucus to repeatedly call for action on the disappearing Black and Latino educators
The only caucus to petition to end mayoral control
The first caucus to pass a resolution against gun violence
And New Action spoke up for organizing home care providers

MORE would like to have a record to match New Action but it’s not
there yet.

When the MORE coalition matches its actions with its
rhetoric–maybe then it can wear the mantle of the social justice caucus!

Let me just add one more thing.

Among the lies and misdirection from New Action, there is purposely
calling MORE a "coalition" instead of a "caucus", a word branded all
over everything MORE does, from the blog to the email to every single
leaflet.

Why? Because a coalition is a group of groups, a
notably unstable and often temporary alliance, which is the impression
New Action is trying to give. about MORE. MORE is a caucus where individuals but not
all members from many groups have joined.

There is an
important difference and New Action, which itself formed as a caucus,
not as a coalition between Teachers Action Caucus and New Directions
where both those groups disappeared as entities. (TJC has disappeared and while ICE continues as a discussion group most ICEers are working inside MORE.)

Note
that TAC was formed out of Teachers for Community Control after the
1968 strike --- and where has that idea gone with New Action? They want
to end Mayoral control but say precious little about local control. Some
social justice caucus. And a reason why Ira Goldfine in my post yesterday pointed to how the early leaders of TAC who opened up schools in 1968 must be turning over in their graves.

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UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.